Chavez conscious and aware, says VP

A man walks past a mural of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in Caracas.
Photo: AFP

Hugo Chavez
is conscious and fully aware of how "complex" his condition is three weeks after difficult cancer surgery in Havana, the Venezuelan president's handpicked successor says.

Vice President Nicolas Maduro, who accused the Venezuelan right of spreading what he described as sick lies and rumours about Chavez's health, said on Tuesday he had spoken to the ailing leader twice over the past three days.

"He is absolutely aware of how complex the post-operative condition is," Maduro said in an interview from Havana with Telesur, a cable news channel funded by Venezuela and other Latin American states.

Maduro, who said he would be returning to Caracas on Wednesday, provided no specifics about Chavez's condition but defended the government's efforts to keep the public informed.

He said Chavez demanded "we should keep the people informed, always with the truth no matter how hard it might be in a given circumstance".

Maduro's statement came amid a cascade of rumours on social networks like Twitter, including some that claimed Chavez was on life support or was dead.

"What is behind the ill-intentioned rumours? It is the evil and hatred of the enemies of Venezuela," he said. "They are people who anybody could describe as mentally ill, sick with hatred, sick with evil."

Official information about Chavez's medical condition has been sketchy since Cuban doctors first detected a cancer in his pelvic region in June 2011. He has undergone four rounds of surgery, and multiple courses of chemotherapy and radiation treatment.

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Meanwhile, political uncertainties have mounted after Chavez won re-election in October to another six-year term.

Chavez is supposed to be sworn in on January 10, but that seemed in jeopardy on Tuesday, stoking the prospect of major upheaval in a nation that has the world's largest proven oil reserves.

The constitution provides for new elections within 30 days if Chavez, who has dominated Venezuelan political life since taking power in 1999, dies or is declared incapacitated before his inauguration.

But the key question is whether Chavismo, Chavez's left-wing movement marked by patronage and generous government handouts to the poor, can survive without him.

Less than two years ago, it would have been impossible to imagine the country without the larger-than-life Chavez at the helm.

His bombastic style of governing did not permit the ascension of a heir apparent within his United Socialist Party of Venezuela.

But before leaving for Cuba in December, Chavez anointed Maduro, a burly and mustachioed former bus driver and union leader, his successor. For many, that signalled the process of transition had begun.

With Chavez's fate in the balance, many Venezuelans stayed close to home on the New Year holiday, leaving the normally traffic-choked streets of the capital virtually empty.